Finland

Suomenlinna Military Museum

B Byrd

— 3 min read
Suomenlinna Military Museum

While A was visiting the Toy Museum, the boys and I spent a few hours at the military museum. Our tickets (free for the boys) got us into the main museum, the "artillery" museum (no actual artillery, that was in the main museum) and a submarine... great value for only €7.

Overview of the main museum.

The main museum was full of vehicles, uniforms, dioramas and a mock-up bunker. The boys really appreciated the dioramas and the bunker (though the main initial excitement was seeing a tank (a Vickers Light Tank for the military nerds among you)).

I really enjoyed getting to know a bit more about Finland's recent-ish military and social history. In particular their unusual circumstances around WW2 including the Winter War and Continuation War (with Russia).

After the main museum, the boys thoroughly enjoyed lots of dressing up and flying a Saab Draken.

Saab Draken simulator and budding fighter pilot.
F the pilot. There may have been boy-generated sound effects.
Pilot number 2 struggled a little with viewing angles. Both boys were surprised how deep the cockpit was.
Careful focus and much flicking of switches.
F's favourite uniform (and the bonus around the corner).
J's mix-and-match uniform.
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J's second attempt at carrying a soldier's pack.

I may have succumbed to peer pressure.

And then we went on to the submarine. Finland no longer has submarines. The last ones went out of service in the 1940s as part of a peace agreement.

The submarine is named after the European Mink (Vesikko) now extinct in Finland.

The boys made such extensive use of the submarine's speaking tubes that the security guard went in to check that everything was okay. He was quite amused to come out and reassure me everything was fine (and I'm pretty sure, have a laugh in Finnish with the ticket person about our rowdy boys).

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed it all.

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